Pneumatic note-sheet-tracking device.



F. 0. WHITE.

PNEUMATIC NOTE SHEET TRACKING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED'DEC.29, I9I5- 1,229,692. Patented June 12, 1917.

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5] vwenfoz UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK C. WHITE, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE WILCOX & WHITE COMPANY, OF MERIDEN, CONNECTICUT, A. CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

PNEUMATIC NOTESHEET-TRACKING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 12, 1917.

Application filed December 29, 1915. Serial No. 69,132.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK C. Harris, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Meriden, Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Pneumatic Note- Sheet-Tracking Device, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in mechanical player mechanisms, wherein a perforated note sheet is drawn across a tracker board to select in proper order the notes to be sounded.

In such instruments it is common to employ means to automatically guide the note sheet over the tracker while the music is being played, and so that the note perforations in the sheet will properly register with their respective ducts in the tracker. It is in connection with this tracking mechanism that my invention is associated, and it is one of my objects to provide means whereby when the note sheet is reversed for the purpose of reroll, it will still be properly guided so that it will be properly rewound upon its spool or roll.

Another of my means to adjust the effective point of operation of the tracking mechanism.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view partly in section, illustrating such portions of the player mechanism as may be essential to a clear understanding of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a detail.

Fig. 3 is a plan view relatively enlarged of one end of the tracker.

Fig. 4c is a section on the line 4.1 of

' Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of other details on a much enlarged scale.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 3 certain parts removed.

1 represents an ordinary perforated note sheet carried by the usual roll 2. 3 represents the usual winding spool upon which the note sheet is wound while the instrument is being played and by which the note sheet is drawn across the tracker board 4: when the music is being played. I have not shown the usual power mechanism by which the winding spool 3 is driven during the playing operation, nor by which the music roll 2 is driven for the purposes of rewinding, since such mechanism is too well known to requ e il u ra on a d m y be readi y with objects is to provide a assumed to be associated with such parts in the usual way. The music roll 2 is mounted at one end on a spindle 5 and is associated with a suitable spring so as to press it normally in one direction. In this instance, it is pressed to the right, as shown in Fig. 1. The other end of the music roll 2 is mounted upon a spindle (3 which is longitudinally movable and which is mechanically controlled so that the roll 2 may be shifted longitudinally to cause the perforations in the note sheet, one of which is indicated at 7, to properly register with the tracker ducts indicated at S. The spindle (3 is movable to the left by means of a pneumatic 9, which pneumatic is, in this instance, connected by arod 10 and a' lever 11 with said spindle, so that when the pneumatic 9 col.- lapses, it will impart a corresponding longitudinal movement to the spindle 6 and shift the music roll The pneumatic 9 is mounted upon a suitable back board 12. 13 conventionally represents an exhaust chamber which connected by a pipe 1 1 with the interior of the pneumatic 9 through a relatively small. port 15. The interior of the pne nnatic 9 is also connected through a relatively small duct 16 with a duct 17 in the tracker, preferably near the end, so that it may be controlled by the edge of the pneumatic sheet 1. 18 is a spring expanded pneumatic on the back board 12 opposite to the pneumatic 9. This pneumatic 18 is in communication with the chamber 13 by a port 19 which is relatively larger or freer than port 15, leading .to the pneumatic 9. Theback board of the bellows 18 is provided with a suitable locking means in the form of a hook 20 which is arranged to lock the pneumatic 9 against movement at a certain time. This locking in the present case is eifected by means of a pinching engagement between the end of the hook 20 and a slide rod 21 which is carried by the movable back board. of pneumatic 9 and moves to and fro over the hook freely when the music roll is being moved in the playing direction, but which is grabbed by the hook and locked against movement when the music sheet 1 is being rewound on the roll 2.

29. is a slide plate mounted in a groove in the end of the tracker and adjustable longitudinally for the purpose of changing the edge of the duct 17. Any suitable means such as a spring friction holding device 23 may be provided to hold the plate 22 in its adj usted, position.

Operation.

When the music sheet is being Wound up on the spool 2 during the playing operation, the pneumatic 9 serves to guide the same in the following manner. As soon as a vacuum is created in the chamber 13, it will ineidentally collapse the pneumatic 18 so as to release the lock 20. Simultaneously the note sheet 1 will move forwardly in the playing direction. If the edge of the sheet fully overstands the tracker duct 17 at the outset the said pneumatic 9 will be closed to atmosphere, and hence will be collapsed to a greater or less extent by the degree of vacu um in chamber 13 which is in communication with the interior of the pneumatic 9 through the port 15. This collapsing movement of the pneumatic 9 causes the roll 2 to shift to the left producing a corresponding movement in the note sheet 1. When the note sheet 1 has been moved sutliciently to the left, it clears the edge of the slide 22 and opens the duct 17 which immediately vents the pneumatic 9 preventing further collapse. The note sheet when in this position, it may be assumed, will correctly register with the ducts 8. The note sheet will be maintained in this position substantially since the moment the pneumatic 9 expands enough to permit the sheet to be shifted to the right sufliciently to close the duct 17, the vacuum will again collapse the pneumatic enough to shift it again to the left, so as to slightly open the duct 17. Theoretically, this pneumatic 9 will constantly expand and contract to a minute degree in substantially the proper position to maintain the note sheet in its proper tracking position. Aside from providing the adjustable slide 22 which permits this position to be modified, as occasion may require, I claim no novelty in the tracking mechanism, but my main improvement resides primarily in the means for holding the note sheet in the proper position to be reWound. Obviously, if the vacuum is even momentarily relieved at the end of a composition, the pneumatic 9 will expand and the roll 2 will be shifted unduly to the right. If the music should now be rewound on the roll 2 it is obvious that it would tend to buckle thereon and not wind up properly, since, to secure a proper winding, the roll 2 should maintain the same or substantially the same position on rewinding, that it occupied during the playing of the instrument. Therefore, if for any reason the vacuum is broken in the pneumatic 9, it will obviously also be broken in the pneumatic 18 at the same instant, and this will result in the immediate expansion of the pneumatic 1S and the like of the bar 21 by the hook 20. This locking of the bar 21 locks the pneumatic 9, and, therefore, the roll 2 in the position that it last occupied during the playing of the instrument, so that while the music sheet is being rewound on the roll 2, it will be wound up properly and without buckling.

As is well known, it is almost universal practice in rewinding music rolls, to have the winding mechanism so arranged as to rewind at a rapid rate of speed many times faster than the speed used in playing. l nasmuch as in rcwinding at high speed the sheet tends to bound away from th face of the tracker, it cannot ell'eetively operate with the ducts therein, and hence the guiding means could not be properly controlled on the rewinding movement in the same manner as it is controlled on the winding movement. To that end it will be understood that in my invention. on rewinding, the vacuum in the pneumatics 918 is relieved so that the lock will operate to mechanically hold the sheet guiding means in the proper position during the rewinding period.

What I claim is:

In a pneumatic player mechanism, a tracker board, music roll mechanism adjacent thereto and arranged to hold a perforated music sheet thereon, one of said parts being shiftable laterally relatively to the other to properly position. said sheet on the tracker, a spring for moving the shiftable part in one direction and a shifter pneumatic for moving said part in an opposite direction on the collapse of said pneumatic, a brake for said shifter pneumatic, a pneumatic control for said brake, passage from said exhauster to each of said pneumatics, the passage to the brake controlling pneumatic being freer than the passage to the shifter pneumatic, and a vent leading to said shifter pneumatic from the tracker board at a point adjacent to the edge of the music sheet, and arranged to be opened and closed thereby.

FRANK C. \V HITE,

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). C, 

